Mama Lisa's Blog

International Music & Culture

Mama Lisa's Blog

A place for poems, songs, rhymes, and traditions from around the world for both kids and grown-ups to enjoy!

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Does Anyone Know a Song with the Line, “A humbugging bee came a courting me”?

April 19th, 2017

Maja wrote asking for help with a song…

Please could you help me find the lyrics for a song passed down from my great-grandmother? She lived on a large plantation in Trinidad and went to school in England so it could have been a very old British ditty.

All I recall are the verses:

A humbugging bee came a courting me
He said he would marry no other than me
And who would the wedding party be
A bug and a tick and a louse and a flea…

I would really love to find the song but internet searches have stumped me. Looking forward to hearing from you.

Maja

I asked Maja if it was possible her great-grandmother combined two songs. The lyrics sound like a mix between the following:

I already knew the Froggie Courting Song, it was another of her favorites, the other was cute but not quite right…spoke to my Aunt who is in her 90’s and she said my Gran sang the Bee song when she was a child and it had 6 verses that she can’t recall.

Sometimes as the words to songs change so much that they are lost forever.

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